Spin Sucks

Liquid Death has busted open a code we've all been trying to crack for years. 100 Tony Hawk skateboards painted with his actual blood. Renaming an iced tea Dead Billionaire. 300 Steve-O voodoo dolls stuffed with his real hair. Creepy? Yes. But also consistent, integrated, and on-brand. Week after week, year after year, without letting up momentum. How? The operating system itself is the brand's competitive advantage. They're at the very top of the PESO ladder, and yet... the work does not stop 😅 Liquid Death has the system—so what are they missing? Find out in the second installment of the PESO Model® Diagnostic: Liquid Death. https://lnkd.in/dw5iQ_6X

The math just isn't mathing. 91% of senior leaders, mid-market marketers, agency principals, and in-house teams are stuck in the bottom half of the PESO Model® Maturity ladder... yet half describes themselves as integrated. Make it make sense! We created a PESO Model Diagnostic to figure out where marketing and systems are breaking down before achieving true integration (so we can help them get there). This week's podcast walks you through the six stages of the PESO Model Maturity Ladder. Listen to it here: https://lnkd.in/dK4nzrE5 And to take the PESO Self Diagnostic, click here: https://lnkd.in/dXUc7wVa

Is GEO the same as AEO? We don't have original data. Does that mean AI will never cite us? We post on LinkedIn, send newsletters, and have a news site. Why aren't we showing up? Gini Dietrich and Sukhi Sahni recently led a Ragan Communications and PR Daily workshop on AI visibility, owned media, and the PESO Model®. But the questions that occupied the Zoom chat were not about AI tools—they were about real problems. Almost every one was, at its core, a PESO Model question. Read for the answers: https://lnkd.in/dCkrTzDT

Don't let AI quietly destroy your best content. The problem actually isn't using AI for content... It's using it for the second draft, third draft, fourth draft. Generative engine optimization means AI engines trust a brand more when independent sources reinforce it claims. Not when the brand publishes the same thing, written by AI, over and over again. This week's episode of the Spin Sucks podcast is live: https://lnkd.in/djHfzBtw

The perfect iced coffee is made the same way a strong marketing system is: by correctly integrating the ingredients. You can have paid, earned, shared, and owned (or espresso, milk, ice, and flavor), but if they're not working seamlessly together, you won't deliver strong results. Many teams mistake coordination for integration, but true success comes when every channel aligns toward a shared goal and guides audiences to a clear destination. The key is intentional collaboration across teams so each element supports and amplifies the others. Get the recipe (for iced coffee and integrated PESO) by Melissa Wickes here: https://lnkd.in/eHbZNgic

Do you know the difference between free use and stealing? You might think you do, but the reality is a lot of "oops, I didn't realize!" moments can actually mean you're stealing someone's work. Take the PESO Model® for example: using the concept is one thing (a great thing!). But putting the graphic in your decks, presentations, courses, and content without attribution... not cool 🫠 This week's podcast goes over attributing the right way so you never make this mistake with the brand-new PESO Model graphic. Oh, did we mention that released today?! 😉 https://lnkd.in/eVzRdTNP

You're doing the work—creating strong owned content, staying present on social, getting earned hits—and yet, you still feel invisible. This is the lament of many communicators and marketers in the age of AI... but it doesn't have to be this way. Visibility engineering allows you to make your brand the obvious answer when your audience is ready to act. It's not about being louder, it's about being strategically present. Get the crash course on visibility engineering (trust us, everyone's talking about it) at next week's IABC and Spin Sucks Town Hall on May 6th at 2pm CST, co-hosted by Gini Dietrich and Martin Waxman, MCM, APR. REGISTER: https://lnkd.in/gjr9kjYR

ICYMI: we launched the PESO Model® Diagnostic: the official readiness assessment from the team that created the model. Twenty questions, five minutes, and you get a personalized report on where your paid, earned, shared, and owned are genuinely operating as a system vs where they're working alone. It’s built for the operators running modern communications functions in an AI-first discovery environment, where the difference between coordinated and integrated is the difference between activity and outcomes. Take the diagnostic: https://lnkd.in/dgSRQE2n (P.S. We also launched a new series, The PESO Diagnostic, where Gini runs high-visibility campaigns through the system. First up: Budweiser's Super Bowl LX ad. Read it: https://bit.ly/41ZRiXZ

Budweiser's Super Bowl LX ad really got people in their ‘Murica feels…but it’s missing one key thing 🍺 The ad was brilliant—the bald eagle and the Clydesdale, the swelling Free bird, the golden-hour closing shot. What it wasn’t, though, was integrated. Coordinated? Yes. Integrated? Not so much. Some of the most expensive, eye-catching ads out there are still not using the PESO Model® operating system to ensure the content actually points buyers to the right place. With that said, it’s not surprising that so many of us have the same problem. In Spin Sucks new series, the PESO Diagnostic, Gini Dietrich takes a high-visibility campaign through the PESO operating lens to see where it stops short of true integration—a problem so many campaigns have. Watch/ read/ listen to the first installment, spotlighting Budweiser’s “Made of America” campaign: https://bit.ly/41ZRiXZ

During the 2026 LA Marathon, Michael Kimani Kamau controlled most of the race... In the final stretch, a disruption and late surge from a competitor erased what looked like a secure lead. What made it memorable wasn’t the outcome; it was the leader’s perception of the competitive gap. Most business leaders assume similarly: If you’re ahead, you’re safe If you’re behind, you’re chasing But competitors don’t move in visible leaps. They move in subtle shifts. Earned media is where “late surges” begin, and where challengers quietly gain legitimacy. Shared media is where momentum becomes visible. Owned media is where the gap is closed or exposed. Don’t fall behind because of the finish line illusion: https://lnkd.in/dfDrTkyd [Image: US Sun]